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Sunday, December 9, 2012

I can hardly believe the words below are real.....

Two years ago I was plodding away in our little coastal village of 1000 people here in faraway Australia, with the spark of a bigger dream beginning to burn more brightly in my mind.

Portland artist Dory Kanter started it for me with her very cool book Art Escapes which I purchased probably around 2006. Filled with fun exercises it also opened up the possibility for me of a life in which I got to travel the world, exploring, learning and inspiring others to shine their brightest creative selves!

Flora Bowley made the possibility even more REAL when she came to stay with our family in April 2011 to run her awesome Bloom True workshop here in Jervis Bay.

SOMETHING BIG SHIFTED for me during this time and continues to move and morph as I sit here in my sunroom, lorikeets chirping in the backyard, contemplating the past 5 months of teaching and travelling solo in the U.S and what an incredible, humbling, life affirming experience it has been to share creative space with so many amazing, wonderful people in California, CT, NY, NJ, N. Carolina, Texas and Florida.....

Next year I am excited to return to the US AND to be teaching here in Australia as well!

Originally I was going to come to the States for just one month in 2013 but when my beautiful friend Erin Faith Hall invited me to stretch my visit out a bit to come teach at her Call of the Wild Soul Retreat there was nothing else to do but say a loud, resounding YES!!!!

One look at the company I'll be in AND the vision of the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and I was bursting out of my skin with excitement...

THIS IS DEFINITELY MY BIG DREAM UNFOLDING and I feel soooooooo GRATEFUL!

Join Teesha Moore, Tracy Verdugo, Madelyn Mulvaney,

Alena Hennessy and Erin Faith Allen

November 7 – 10, 2013

in Petaluma, California

We collectively emphasize connectedness, community, open hearts, and
courageous exploring through our art. This retreat is a cocoon of safe
and intuitive creativity, self-empowerment, and fun … while being
nurtured in the majesty of the land once nurtured by the Miwok tribe.How EarthRise Retreat Center Began: It was literally conceived in outer space. Dr. Mitchell was on Apollo 14’s mission to the moon. From the EarthRise website: “On
the trip home Dr. Mitchell sat in the window seat of the cramped cabin
of the space capsule. As he saw Earth floating freely in the vastness of
space, Dr. Mitchell was engulfed by a profound sense of universal
connectedness—an epiphany. In Dr. Mitchell’s own words: ‘The presence of
divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe
was not just an accident based on random processes . . . The knowledge
came to me directly.’ Dr Mitchell returned to Earth and founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences – derived from the Greek word nous, meaning “intuitive ways of knowing.”

here is what I will be teaching :)

Laced between the fragments of our own unique narrative is the thread of humanity
which stretches wide in all directions; past, present and future,
encompassing and informing both our inner and our outer worlds.

Drawing upon the wisdom of
our ancestors and the indigenous keepers of the land, the inspiration of
our peers and the dreams of our future selves we will paint the story
of this sacred journey. On a large canvas we will explore new and
non-threatening ways to make art, learn to be inspired in every moment
and realize that there are no mistakes in the creative process, only
opportunities to learn and grow! We will spend our time creating our
paintings and mixed media pieces spontaneously and intuitively, with no
expectations, a wholehearted approach and an open mind!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Hi beautiful people!

Today is my turn in a wonderful two week blog hop to introduce Jill K. Berry’s new line of stencils, TEXTures, from Artistcellar. There are 4 gorgeous stencils in this set and I was excited to try them as stencils are not part of my usual repertoire.

I decided to use the stencil inspired by rivers but for some reason my mind jumped straight to the image of a tree and a beautiful Ojibwa saying,

No tree has branches so foolish as to fight amongst themselves.

I painted on a 12x12 inch wood panel, beginning with some playful marks in turquoise, white, yellow and green gold.

I then stencilled over the background using the same stencil four times to fill the panel using the same range of colours but contrasting light against dark and vise versa.

Using a watercolour pencil to draw in the image of a tree I then proceeded to paint out the negative spaces around the tree using transparent red iron oxide. I was surprised at the gorgeous effect of the turquoise glimpsing through the underlayers. I then added a turquoise glaze over some areas of the tree.

I almost stopped there but decided to add a little gold shimmer around the tree and then couldn't resist throwing in some POPS of colour! So much fun!

This original work is for sale. First one to email me will be the lucky purchaser!

tracy_verdugo@hotmail.com

TracyVerdugo. 2012.We are all one. acrylic on ply. 12" x12 "$350

This post is a part of a two week blog hop.

Leave a comment below for a chance to win your own set of Textures!

You can leave a comment here, and make sure you check out all the innovative ways that the others blog hop artists (listed below) have used these stencils! Leave a comment
on their posts too, for more chances to win!

I will draw a name from all of the comments on this post on December 14, 2012, the last day of the hop!

My dear awesome, wonderful, talented, creative friends! It's that time of the year again, a time for recaps and reflections.......

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. ~Rumi

Followers

sweet words from students :)

Dear Tracy,

I have had such an amazing response to your workshop. It has gone far beyond the painting of a picture. You have an incredible , supportive and intuitive energy that is contagious. Teaching others about freeing yourself up, from the ever present ‘critical mind’, is life changing. I am so inspired by your wonderful workshop. I have been applying simple messages from the day into my everyday life, and the roller coaster of life is so much richer and exciting with the knowledge of letting go and trusting in the process. This wonderful painting (that I have hung above my computer) reminds me every day that life always has a way of working out for the better if we just let go.....

Your way of teaching is subtle, yet powerful, and you guide others to discover for themselves important insights. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of this very special day

~Vanessa

Thanks again Tracy for such a wonderful, colourful, transformative, powerful, peaceful weekend.....I really see how much I get caught in detail and perfection and beautifying and how this has it's value but as you pointed out to me, if I'm feeling like I'm tensing and tightening up with this then move the energy, shift and also be bold to make big changes if things aren't working! That's a big one. But this is life, nothing ever stays completely the same does it!SO yes thanks SO very much for your colourful, loving, gentle yet powerful and generous sharing on the weekend. Looking forward to journeying more with you creatively and in friendship.~Katie